2. Purpose of the Ancillary
• An important part of this project was creating an image for the artist to represent her to her
audience in the hope she would appeal to her fan base. Using a digipak and magazine advert
to help her promote her as well as the single ‘All about tonight’.
• By doing this successfully it will engage a large fan base that will potentially increase the
popularity of the artist. In order for us to do this effectively we needed a particular style that
the artist would maintain throughout the entirety of both promotional and production based
products. We took influence from Pixie Lott herself as well as other current female pop
artists; this gave us insight into branding in the music industry.
4. The Magazine Advert
• When creating our first ancillary task, a magazine advert, we knew that this would be a crucial way
in promoting our music video to our target audience, it would allow the audience the first
impression to the soon to be released video. Therefore, we needed to make sure the magazine
advert included the key aspects that the music video did. We wanted it to look ‘modern’ ‘girly’ and
‘Glamorous’. So, to promote the single ‘All about tonight’ by Pixie Lott, we continued to use the
‘pop style’ which we had used throughout the music video, and also used this for the digipak too.
This was a way to brand the artist and portray her as a care-free character, we did this so the
audience could then associate particular themes, fonts, styles and colours with this artist.
• The layout of the magazine makes her look desirable and superior as she is in centre of the
magazine advert. We decided to have her as the main focus of the advert as Pixie has a strong fan
base who want to see what she looks like and her style/image especially. A sneak peak of her style
and make up choice for the video would in turn ensure the audience are excited to see what she
looks like in the video.
• From previous research, we knew majority of current female pop stars feature heavily in their
magazine adverts, it would e wise for us to reflect other artists in the same genres work as we can
see what works successfully for them with a similar target audience.
• We made the decision to have ratings from a newspaper on the advert, this is to re assure people
the song is of quality and it is worthwhile to purchase. As the Daily Mail have rated it 5 star any
one seeing the advert will believe this song is something worth listening to. People who would not
normally listen to pop music may be inclined to do so if the reviews are praising. Furthermore this
will also increase the amount of people wanting to view the video, if they wish to listen to the song
with a visual representation as well.
5. Real life examples
• One real life example is Jessie J’s magazine
advert for her debut album ‘Who you Are.’
• Her face is the main focus of the advert along
with her name at the centre, reflecting the
importance of the artist as a selling point. This is
similar to our magazine advert as we chose to
have Pixie Lott as the biggest bit of text on the
advert.
• However, we also chose to add some extra
information on our advert, as it is for a single
not an album it’s particularly important. We put
an “Available on iTunes” watermark so anybody
interested can easily find the song. By looking at
examples of other magazine adverts we had this
idea. As our advert is for a single we have the
song title next under her name and a small
screenshot of one of the album covers, this is to
show what they are able to purchase if they
wanted to buy a physical copy. Pixies fans would
show further interest in this as she again is the
focus of the album cover.
6. The Digipak
• The digipak gives an indication as to what our music video is like. Each panel portrays aspects
of our artist; reflecting her personality. Voyeurism is a big aspect of our video and as such is
presented in the digipak. For example the images inside the pak emphasise the importance
of Pixie Lott’s image. The music video includes panning up Pixie’s outfit an example of
voyeurism as the audience is made to be viewing her whole outfit in a certain way.
• It would likely be sold at the HMV as well as in supermarkets such as Sainsbury’s and Asda
also online. In the music industry, pop is a very competitive genre, therefore the product
would sell well within these stores. Having it sold online could be an issue as only an MP3 file
may be available.
7.
8. In this panel you can see
a merge of pictures from
the music video. Pixie
appears to look
glamorous with make up
and her hair styled. This
is a good way to promote
the image Pixie is
portraying in the video.
This is typical of female
pop artists using image
to promote their music.
Furthermore the shot on
the right shows Lauren
laughing therefore
connoting she is having a
good time. This entices
an audience to watch the
video and see what fun.
she is having here.
In this Panel we can see a
different make up look,
her hair is slicked back
with a more bold lip. This
again portrays the variety
of glamour and the nature
of girls going out. This
reflects other pop videos
out there such as a video
by Katy Perry for example
will feature numerous
different looks, this keeps
the video interesting to
the viewer. Also the glow
of the lights in this shot
reflects the theme of our
video, going out at night
and partying.
Here you can see one
of the several costumes
in our video and Pixie
posing for the camera.
The viewer is given a
sneak peek of the
video- one of the
locations. This will build
up anticipation for the
video which is
especially important to
do for her fans as well
who will be excited to
see what the video is
like.
In this panel the
merging shot of a
pair of heels and
Lauren laughing
reflects the themes
of our video. This
gives the audience
an idea of what
they should expect
to see in the real
thing.
9. Title page and back page
• The back page gives a chance to promote our music label ‘Cheetah productions’
There is a link to the website which may promote other cheetah artists. The
parental advisory mark on the back and front cover is particularly important as a
warning, the pop genre is not typically explicit due to the younger fan base but as
long as parents trust Pixies innocent image this sign will just inform them if
deciding to buy the song for their children.
10. Comparison
• From analysing both ancillary tasks in terms of promotional skills and techniques, I believe
the digipak and magazine advert effectively promote our music video as a combination.
• The digipak focuses on the content of the music video as in encapsulates images that are
used within the video. This gives a real distinctive idea to what the music video and the artist
is like. Whereas the magazine advert mainly focuses on the promotional key aspects for the
release of the music video and it includes crucial information about the single. Both methods
work really well together, as the magazine advert doesn’t give too much of the music video
away, this leave the audience interested to want to know more about the video (Especially
young girls who are interested in Lott’s image and like to see pictures of her make up/ hair for
inspiration)
• On the other hand the digipak offers more of an insight to the style of the video showing
partying and glamour, it however doesn’t express the whole video which again leaves the
audience wanting to see more. All three products, the music video, magazine advert and
digipak include the same girly theme throughout which enable the audience to get a specific
and individual take on the artists brand and image. This shows that throughout all three
products, the distinct theme for the artist has been maintained throughout, thus creating a
‘young, care-free’ representation of the artist Pixie Lott.
